The goal of this course is to provide support for students who are looking for a master thesis topic and who subsequently are drafting their thesis and are then preparing themselves for the final defense. We aim for both, peer support and learning from each other. Furthermore, this course is intended to serve as a community building among master students and lecturers in business informatics.

We run three seminar days each semester. The first seminar day is started by a preliminary meeting. During the preliminary meeting we explain all you need to know about this seminar in order to successfully pass it. Students do not have to complete the seminar within one semester, they may stretch their attendance over several semesters.

The first presentation on each seminar day is given by a lecturer on the topic of the research methods in his/her research field. In the course of each semester, we cover research methods on (business) informatics, business administration and management, as well as economics.

The rest of the seminar day is made up of student presentations. Each student has to give two prsentations, one on his/her master thesis proposal and one of the final results of his/her master thesis. No matter which type of presentation is given, the students have to reserve a presentation slot via TUWEL.

Students who give a presentation on a master thesis proposal, have to submit this proposal via the ConfDriver system at a fixed deadline (which usually is about 2 weeks prior to the presentation). A few days after the submission deadline, each of these students will be assigned to review two proposals of other students. The review has again to be submitted via the ConfDriver system at a fixed deadline (which usually is about 2 days prior to the presentation). Furthermore, each student has to upload his/her presentation slides on the master thesis proposal via TUWEL.

Students who give a presentation on the final master thesis only have to submit the presentation slides via TUWEL.

Only those students who present their final master thesis will receive a final grading and, thus, a certificate. Students who are not able to complete all parts of the seminar may continue in the following semester.

A seminar day is usually held within the two weeks prior to a submission deadline to complete your studies. However, if it is not possible to offer a seminar day within this two weeks, you may still submit your request to complete your studies at the dean’s office (if you have successfully completed all other lectures) and give your presentation on the following seminar day, which will be held in any case prior to your final defense.

• Planning Meeting: 1 hrs
• Participation in 3 Units: 3 x 8hrs = 24 hrs
• Preparing “Proposal Presentation”: 16 hrs
• Review Proposals: 2 x 4 hrs = 8 hrs
• Preparing “Final Presentation“: 16 hrs
• Reflection of Results: 10 hrs
• Total: 75 hrs

Please consider the plagiarism guidelines of TU Wien when writing your seminar paper: http://www.tuwien.ac.at/fileadmin/t/ukanzlei/t-ukanzlei-english/Plagiarism.pdf

• Participation in the three presentations of lecturers on research methods
• Presentation of the master proposal
• Review of two other master proposals and the presentation of the review results
• Presentation of the final results of the master thesis
• Active participation in the discussion on presentations from others on all seminar days a student participates in a research method presentation or gives one of his/her two presentations

It should be explicitly noted that students who follow a research method presentation or give a proposal or final presentation have to participate for the whole seminar day.

This seminar is mandatory for all students of the master business informatics. It cannot be replaced by any kind of diploma seminar that is usually offered by a research group of our faculty.

Students should preferably start this seminar when looking for a master thesis and, thus, plan to start with the thesis during this winter term or at the very beginning of the next summer term. Students who have already started to work on their thesis should definitely participate in this seminar.